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ETV5 (Ets variant gene 5) is a transcription factor that is required for fertility. In this study, we demonstrate that ETV5 plays additional roles in embryonic and postnatal developmental processes in the mouse. Through a genome-wide mouse mutagenesis approach, we generated a sterile mouse line that carried a nonsense mutation in exon 12 of the Etv5 gene. The mutation led to the conversion of lysine at position 412 into a premature termination codon (PTC) within the ETS DNA binding domain of the protein. We showed that the PTC-containing allele produced a highly unstable mRNA, which in turn resulted in an undetectable level of ETV5 protein. The Etv5 mutation resulted in male and female sterility as determined by breeding experiments. Mutant males were sterile due to a progressive loss of spermatogonia, which ultimately resulted in a Sertoli cell only phenotype by 8 week-of-age. Further, the ETV5 target genes Cxcr4 and Ccl9 were significantly down-regulated in mutant neonate testes. CXCR4 and CCL9 have been implicated in the maintenance and migration of spermatogonia, respectively. Moreover, the Etv5 mutation resulted in several developmental abnormalities including an increased incidence of embryonic and perinatal lethality, postnatal growth restriction, polydactyly and renal asymmetry. Thus, our data define a physiological role for ETV5 in many aspects of development including embryonic and perinatal survival, postnatal growth, limb patterning, kidney development and fertility.

Here, we present methods for the development of assays to query potentially clinically significant nonsynonymous changes using in vivo complementation in zebrafish. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) are a useful animal system due to their experimental tractability; embryos are transparent to enable facile viewing, undergo rapid development ex vivo, and can be genetically manipulated.1 These aspects have allowed for significant advances in the analysis of embryogenesis, molecular processes, and morphogenetic signaling. Taken together, the advantages of this vertebrate model make zebrafish highly amenable to modeling the developmental defects in pediatric disease, and in some cases, adult-onset disorders. Because the zebrafish genome is highly conserved with that of humans (~70% orthologous), it is possible to recapitulate human disease states in zebrafish. This is accomplished either through the injection of mutant human mRNA to induce dominant negative or gain of function alleles, or utilization of morpholino (MO) antisense oligonucleotides to suppress genes to mimic loss of function variants. Through complementation of MO-induced phenotypes with capped human mRNA, our approach enables the interpretation of the deleterious effect of mutations on human protein sequence based on the ability of mutant mRNA to rescue a measurable, physiologically relevant phenotype. Modeling of the human disease alleles occurs through microinjection of zebrafish embryos with MO and/or human mRNA at the 1-4 cell stage, and phenotyping up to seven days post fertilization (dpf). This general strategy can be extended to a wide range of disease phenotypes, as demonstrated in the following protocol. We present our established models for morphogenetic signaling, craniofacial, cardiac, vascular integrity, renal function, and skeletal muscle disorder phenotypes, as well as others.

Institutions: Eastern Virginia Medical School, Medical University of South Carolina, University of Michigan.

Polycystic kidney disease (PKD) is one of the most common causes of end-stage kidney disease, a devastating disease for which there is no cure. The molecular mechanisms leading to cyst formation in PKD remain somewhat unclear, but many genes are thought to be involved. Wnt5a is a non-canonical glycoprotein that regulates a wide range of developmental processes. Wnt5a works through the planar cell polarity (PCP) pathway that regulates oriented cell division during renal tubular cell elongation. Defects of the PCP pathway have been found to cause kidney cyst formation. Our paper describes a method for developing a zebrafish cystic kidney disease model by knockdown of the wnt5a gene with wnt5a antisense morpholino (MO) oligonucleotides. Tg(wt1b:GFP) transgenic zebrafish were used to visualize kidney structure and kidney cysts following wnt5a knockdown. Two distinct antisense MOs (AUG - and splice-site) were used and both resulted in curly tail down phenotype and cyst formation after wnt5a knockdown. Injection of mouse Wnt5a mRNA, resistant to the MOs due to a difference in primary base pair structure, rescued the abnormal phenotype, demonstrating that the phenotype was not due to “off-target” effects of the morpholino. This work supports the validity of using a zebrafish model to study wnt5a function in the kidney.

Generation of RNA/DNA Hybrids in Genomic DNA by Transformation using RNA-containing Oligonucleotides

Authors: Ying Shen, Francesca Storici.

Institutions: Georgia Institute of Technology.

Synthetic short nucleic acid polymers, oligonucleotides (oligos), are the most functional and widespread tools of molecular biology. Oligos can be produced to contain any desired DNA or RNA sequence and can be prepared to include a wide variety of base and sugar modifications. Moreover, oligos can be designed to mimic specific nucleic acid alterations and thus, can serve as important tools to investigate effects of DNA damage and mechanisms of repair. We found that Thermo Scientific Dharmacon RNA-containing oligos with a length between 50 and 80 nucleotides can be particularly suitable to study, in vivo, functions and consequences of chromosomal RNA/DNA hybrids and of ribonucleotides embedded into DNA. RNA/DNA hybrids can readily form during DNA replication, repair and transcription, however, very little is known about the stability of RNA/DNA hybrids in cells and to which extent these hybrids can affect the genetic integrity of cells. RNA-containing oligos, therefore, represent a perfect vector to introduce ribonucleotides into chromosomal DNA and generate RNA/DNA hybrids of chosen length and base composition. Here we present the protocol for the incorporation of ribonucleotides into the genome of the eukaryotic model system yeast /Saccharomyces cerevisiae/. Yet, our lab has utilized Thermo Scientific Dharmacon RNA-containing oligos to generate RNA/DNA hybrids at the chromosomal level in different cell systems, from bacteria to human cells.

Identifying the Effects of BRCA1 Mutations on Homologous Recombination using Cells that Express Endogenous Wild-type BRCA1

Authors: Jeffrey Parvin, Natsuko Chiba, Derek Ransburgh.

Institutions: The Ohio State University, Tohoku University.

The functional analysis of missense mutations can be complicated by the presence in the cell of the endogenous protein. Structure-function analyses of the BRCA1 have been complicated by the lack of a robust assay for the full length BRCA1 protein and the difficulties inherent in working with cell lines that express hypomorphic BRCA1 protein1,2,3,4,5. We developed a system whereby the endogenous BRCA1 protein in a cell was acutely depleted by RNAi targeting the 3'-UTR of the BRCA1 mRNA and replaced by co-transfecting a plasmid expressing a BRCA1 variant. One advantage of this procedure is that the acute silencing of BRCA1 and simultaneous replacement allow the cells to grow without secondary mutations or adaptations that might arise over time to compensate for the loss of BRCA1 function. This depletion and add-back procedure was done in a HeLa-derived cell line that was readily assayed for homologous recombination activity. The homologous recombination assay is based on a previously published method whereby a recombination substrate is integrated into the genome (Figure 1)6,7,8,9. This recombination substrate has the rare-cutting I-SceI restriction enzyme site inside an inactive GFP allele, and downstream is a second inactive GFP allele. Transfection of the plasmid that expresses I-SceI results in a double-stranded break, which may be repaired by homologous recombination, and if homologous recombination does repair the break it creates an active GFP allele that is readily scored by flow cytometry for GFP protein expression. Depletion of endogenous BRCA1 resulted in an 8-10-fold reduction in homologous recombination activity, and add-back of wild-type plasmid fully restored homologous recombination function. When specific point mutants of full length BRCA1 were expressed from co-transfected plasmids, the effect of the specific missense mutant could be scored. As an example, the expression of the BRCA1(M18T) protein, a variant of unknown clinical significance10, was expressed in these cells, it failed to restore BRCA1-dependent homologous recombination. By contrast, expression of another variant, also of unknown significance, BRCA1(I21V) fully restored BRCA1-dependent homologous recombination function. This strategy of testing the function of BRCA1 missense mutations has been applied to another biological system assaying for centrosome function (Kais et al, unpublished observations). Overall, this approach is suitable for the analysis of missense mutants in any gene that must be analyzed recessively.

In response to viral infection, a host develops various defensive responses, such as activating innate immune signaling pathways that lead to antiviral cytokine production1,2. In order to colonize the host, viruses are obligate to evade host antiviral responses and manipulate signaling pathways. Unraveling the host-virus interaction will shed light on the development of novel therapeutic strategies against viral infection.
Murine γHV68 is closely related to human oncogenic Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus and Epsten-Barr virus3,4. γHV68 infection in laboratory mice provides a tractable small animal model to examine the entire course of host responses and viral infection in vivo, which are not available for human herpesviruses. In this protocol, we present a panel of methods for phenotypic characterization and molecular dissection of host signaling components in γHV68 lytic replication both in vivo and ex vivo. The availability of genetically modified mouse strains permits the interrogation of the roles of host signaling pathways during γHV68 acute infection in vivo. Additionally, mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) isolated from these deficient mouse strains can be used to further dissect roles of these molecules during γHV68 lytic replication ex vivo.
Using virological and molecular biology assays, we can pinpoint the molecular mechanism of host-virus interactions and identify host and viral genes essential for viral lytic replication. Finally, a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) system facilitates the introduction of mutations into the viral factor(s) that specifically interrupt the host-virus interaction. Recombinant γHV68 carrying these mutations can be used to recapitulate the phenotypes of γHV68 lytic replication in MEFs deficient in key host signaling components. This protocol offers an excellent strategy to interrogate host-pathogen interaction at multiple levels of intervention in vivo and ex vivo.
Recently, we have discovered that γHV68 usurps an innate immune signaling pathway to promote viral lytic replication5. Specifically, γHV68 de novo infection activates the immune kinase IKKβ and activated IKKβ phosphorylates the master viral transcription factor, replication and transactivator (RTA), to promote viral transcriptional activation. In doing so, γHV68 efficiently couples its transcriptional activation to host innate immune activation, thereby facilitating viral transcription and lytic replication. This study provides an excellent example that can be applied to other viruses to interrogate host-virus interaction.

We describe a protocol for establishing mouse models of periventricular leukomalacia (PVL). PVL is the predominant form of brain injury in premature infants and the most common antecedent of cerebral palsy. PVL is characterized by periventricular white matter damage with prominent oligodendroglial injury. Hypoxia/ischemia with or without systemic infection/inflammation are the primary causes of PVL. We use P6 mice to create models of neonatal brain injury by the induction of hypoxia/ischemia with or without systemic infection/inflammation with unilateral carotid ligation followed by exposure to hypoxia with or without injection of the endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Immunohistochemistry of myelin basic protein (MBP) or O1 and electron microscopic examination show prominent myelin loss in cerebral white matter with additional damage to the hippocampus and thalamus. Establishment of mouse models of PVL will greatly facilitate the study of disease pathogenesis using available transgenic mouse strains, conduction of drug trials in a relatively high throughput manner to identify candidate therapeutic agents, and testing of stem cell transplantation using immunodeficiency mouse strains.

Institutions: University of Toronto, University of Toronto, University of Toronto.

The fundamental biological and clinical importance of integral membrane proteins prompted the development of a yeast-based system for the high-throughput identification of protein-protein interactions (PPI) for full-length transmembrane proteins. To this end, our lab developed the split-ubiquitin based Membrane Yeast Two-Hybrid (MYTH) system. This technology allows for the sensitive detection of transient and stable protein interactions using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a host organism. MYTH takes advantage of the observation that ubiquitin can be separated into two stable moieties: the C-terminal half of yeast ubiquitin (Cub) and the N-terminal half of the ubiquitin moiety (Nub). In MYTH, this principle is adapted for use as a 'sensor' of protein-protein interactions. Briefly, the integral membrane bait protein is fused to Cub which is linked to an artificial transcription factor. Prey proteins, either in individual or library format, are fused to the Nub moiety. Protein interaction between the bait and prey leads to reconstitution of the ubiquitin moieties, forming a full-length 'pseudo-ubiquitin' molecule. This molecule is in turn recognized by cytosolic deubiquitinating enzymes, resulting in cleavage of the transcription factor, and subsequent induction of reporter gene expression. The system is highly adaptable, and is particularly well-suited to high-throughput screening. It has been successfully employed to investigate interactions using integral membrane proteins from both yeast and other organisms.

Cultured embryonic and adult skeletal muscle cells have a number of different uses. The micro-dissected explants technique described in this chapter is a robust and reliable method for isolating relatively large numbers of proliferative skeletal muscle cells from juvenile, adult or embryonic muscles as a source of skeletal muscle stem cells. The authors have used micro-dissected explant cultures to analyse the growth characteristics of skeletal muscle cells in wild-type and dystrophic muscles. Each of the components of tissue growth, namely cell survival, proliferation, senescence and differentiation can be analysed separately using the methods described here. The net effect of all components of growth can be established by means of measuring explant outgrowth rates. The micro-explant method can be used to establish primary cultures from a wide range of different muscle types and ages and, as described here, has been adapted by the authors to enable the isolation of embryonic skeletal muscle precursors.
Uniquely, micro-explant cultures have been used to derive clonal (single cell origin) skeletal muscle stem cell (SMSc) lines which can be expanded and used for in vivo transplantation. In vivo transplanted SMSc behave as functional, tissue-specific, satellite cells which contribute to skeletal muscle fibre regeneration but which are also retained (in the satellite cell niche) as a small pool of undifferentiated stem cells which can be re-isolated into culture using the micro-explant method.

The zebrafish embryo is now commonly used for basic and biomedical research to investigate the genetic control of developmental processes and to model congenital abnormalities. During the first day of life, the zebrafish embryo progresses through many developmental stages including fertilization, cleavage, gastrulation, segmentation, and the organogenesis of structures such as the kidney, heart, and central nervous system. The anatomy of a young zebrafish embryo presents several challenges for the visualization and analysis of the tissues involved in many of these events because the embryo develops in association with a round yolk mass. Thus, for accurate analysis and imaging of experimental phenotypes in fixed embryonic specimens between the tailbud and 20 somite stage (10 and 19 hours post fertilization (hpf), respectively), such as those stained using whole mount in situ hybridization (WISH), it is often desirable to remove the embryo from the yolk ball and to position it flat on a glass slide. However, performing a flat mount procedure can be tedious. Therefore, successful and efficient flat mount preparation is greatly facilitated through the visual demonstration of the dissection technique, and also helped by using reagents that assist in optimal tissue handling. Here, we provide our WISH protocol for one or two-color detection of gene expression in the zebrafish embryo, and demonstrate how the flat mounting procedure can be performed on this example of a stained fixed specimen. This flat mounting protocol is broadly applicable to the study of many embryonic structures that emerge during early zebrafish development, and can be implemented in conjunction with other staining methods performed on fixed embryo samples.

Transgenic mice carrying site-specific genome modifications (knockout, knock-in) are of vital importance for dissecting complex biological systems as well as for modeling human diseases and testing therapeutic strategies. Recent advances in the use of designer nucleases such as zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), and the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated (Cas) 9 system for site-specific genome engineering open the possibility to perform rapid targeted genome modification in virtually any laboratory species without the need to rely on embryonic stem (ES) cell technology. A genome editing experiment typically starts with identification of designer nuclease target sites within a gene of interest followed by construction of custom DNA-binding domains to direct nuclease activity to the investigator-defined genomic locus. Designer nuclease plasmids are in vitro transcribed to generate mRNA for microinjection of fertilized mouse oocytes. Here, we provide a protocol for achieving targeted genome modification by direct injection of TALEN mRNA into fertilized mouse oocytes.

RNA viruses use RNA dependent RNA polymerases to replicate their genomes. The intrinsically high error rate of these enzymes is a large contributor to the generation of extreme population diversity that facilitates virus adaptation and evolution. Increasing evidence shows that the intrinsic error rates, and the resulting mutation frequencies, of RNA viruses can be modulated by subtle amino acid changes to the viral polymerase. Although biochemical assays exist for some viral RNA polymerases that permit quantitative measure of incorporation fidelity, here we describe a simple method of measuring mutation frequencies of RNA viruses that has proven to be as accurate as biochemical approaches in identifying fidelity altering mutations. The approach uses conventional virological and sequencing techniques that can be performed in most biology laboratories. Based on our experience with a number of different viruses, we have identified the key steps that must be optimized to increase the likelihood of isolating fidelity variants and generating data of statistical significance. The isolation and characterization of fidelity altering mutations can provide new insights into polymerase structure and function1-3. Furthermore, these fidelity variants can be useful tools in characterizing mechanisms of virus adaptation and evolution4-7.

Germ cell transplantation was developed by Dr. Ralph Brinster and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania in 19941,2. These ground-breaking studies showed that microinjection of germ cells from fertile donor mice into the seminiferous tubules of infertile recipient mice results in donor-derived spermatogenesis and sperm production by the recipient animal2. The use of donor males carrying the bacterial β-galactosidase gene allowed identification of donor-derived spermatogenesis and transmission of the donor haplotype to the offspring by recipient animals1. Surprisingly, after transplantation into the lumen of the seminiferous tubules, transplanted germ cells were able to move from the luminal compartment to the basement membrane where spermatogonia are located3. It is generally accepted that only SSCs are able to colonize the niche and re-establish spermatogenesis in the recipient testis. Therefore, germ cell transplantation provides a functional approach to study the stem cell niche in the testis and to characterize putative spermatogonial stem cells. To date, germ cell transplantation is used to elucidate basic stem cell biology, to produce transgenic animals through genetic manipulation of germ cells prior to transplantation4,5, to study Sertoli cell-germ cell interaction6,7, SSC homing and colonization3,8, as well as SSC self-renewal and differentiation9,10.
Germ cell transplantation is also feasible in large species11. In these, the main applications are preservation of fertility, dissemination of elite genetics in animal populations, and generation of transgenic animals as the study of spermatogenesis and SSC biology with this technique is logistically more difficult and expensive than in rodents. Transplantation of germ cells from large species into the seminiferous tubules of mice results in colonization of donor cells and spermatogonial expansion, but not in their full differentiation presumably due to incompatibility of the recipient somatic cell compartment with the germ cells from phylogenetically distant species12. An alternative approach is transplantation of germ cells from large species together with their surrounding somatic compartment. We first reported in 2002, that small fragments of testis tissue from immature males transplanted under the dorsal skin of immunodeficient mice are able to survive and undergo full development with the production of fertilization competent sperm13. Since then testis tissue xenografting has been shown to be successful in many species and emerged as a valuable alternative to study testis development and spermatogenesis of large animals in mice14.

The zebrafish has become a mainstream vertebrate model that is relevant for many disciplines of scientific study. Zebrafish are especially well suited for forward genetic analysis of developmental processes due to their external fertilization, embryonic size, rapid ontogeny, and optical clarity – a constellation of traits that enable the direct observation of events ranging from gastrulation to organogenesis with a basic stereomicroscope. Further, zebrafish embryos can survive for several days in the haploid state. The production of haploid embryos in vitro is a powerful tool for mutational analysis, as it enables the identification of recessive mutant alleles present in first generation (F1) female carriers following mutagenesis in the parental (P) generation. This approach eliminates the necessity to raise multiple generations (F2, F3, etc.) which involves breeding of mutant families, thus saving the researcher time along with reducing the needs for zebrafish colony space, labor, and the husbandry costs. Although zebrafish have been used to conduct forward screens for the past several decades, there has been a steady expansion of transgenic and genome editing tools. These tools now offer a plethora of ways to create nuanced assays for next generation screens that can be used to further dissect the gene regulatory networks that drive vertebrate ontogeny. Here, we describe how to prepare haploid zebrafish embryos. This protocol can be implemented for novel future haploid screens, such as in enhancer and suppressor screens, to address the mechanisms of development for a broad number of processes and tissues that form during early embryonic stages.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been an excellent model system for examining mechanisms and consequences of genome instability. Information gained from this yeast model is relevant to many organisms, including humans, since DNA repair and DNA damage response factors are well conserved across diverse species. However, S. cerevisiae has not yet been used to fully address whether the rate of accumulating mutations changes with increasing replicative (mitotic) age due to technical constraints. For instance, measurements of yeast replicative lifespan through micromanipulation involve very small populations of cells, which prohibit detection of rare mutations. Genetic methods to enrich for mother cells in populations by inducing death of daughter cells have been developed, but population sizes are still limited by the frequency with which random mutations that compromise the selection systems occur. The current protocol takes advantage of magnetic sorting of surface-labeled yeast mother cells to obtain large enough populations of aging mother cells to quantify rare mutations through phenotypic selections. Mutation rates, measured through fluctuation tests, and mutation frequencies are first established for young cells and used to predict the frequency of mutations in mother cells of various replicative ages. Mutation frequencies are then determined for sorted mother cells, and the age of the mother cells is determined using flow cytometry by staining with a fluorescent reagent that detects bud scars formed on their cell surfaces during cell division. Comparison of predicted mutation frequencies based on the number of cell divisions to the frequencies experimentally observed for mother cells of a given replicative age can then identify whether there are age-related changes in the rate of accumulating mutations. Variations of this basic protocol provide the means to investigate the influence of alterations in specific gene functions or specific environmental conditions on mutation accumulation to address mechanisms underlying genome instability during replicative aging.

The zebrafish model has emerged as a relevant system to study kidney development, regeneration and disease. Both the embryonic and adult zebrafish kidneys are composed of functional units known as nephrons, which are highly conserved with other vertebrates, including mammals. Research in zebrafish has recently demonstrated that two distinctive phenomena transpire after adult nephrons incur damage: first, there is robust regeneration within existing nephrons that replaces the destroyed tubule epithelial cells; second, entirely new nephrons are produced from renal progenitors in a process known as neonephrogenesis. In contrast, humans and other mammals seem to have only a limited ability for nephron epithelial regeneration. To date, the mechanisms responsible for these kidney regeneration phenomena remain poorly understood. Since adult zebrafish kidneys undergo both nephron epithelial regeneration and neonephrogenesis, they provide an outstanding experimental paradigm to study these events. Further, there is a wide range of genetic and pharmacological tools available in the zebrafish model that can be used to delineate the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate renal regeneration. One essential aspect of such research is the evaluation of nephron structure and function. This protocol describes a set of labeling techniques that can be used to gauge renal composition and test nephron functionality in the adult zebrafish kidney. Thus, these methods are widely applicable to the future phenotypic characterization of adult zebrafish kidney injury paradigms, which include but are not limited to, nephrotoxicant exposure regimes or genetic methods of targeted cell death such as the nitroreductase mediated cell ablation technique. Further, these methods could be used to study genetic perturbations in adult kidney formation and could also be applied to assess renal status during chronic disease modeling.

Institutions: Medical College of Wisconsin, Stanford University School of Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Hong Kong University, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin.

There is an urgent need to develop approaches for repairing the damaged heart, discovering new therapeutic drugs that do not have toxic effects on the heart, and improving strategies to accurately model heart disease. The potential of exploiting human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) technology to generate cardiac muscle “in a dish” for these applications continues to generate high enthusiasm. In recent years, the ability to efficiently generate cardiomyogenic cells from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) has greatly improved, offering us new opportunities to model very early stages of human cardiac development not otherwise accessible. In contrast to many previous methods, the cardiomyocyte differentiation protocol described here does not require cell aggregation or the addition of Activin A or BMP4 and robustly generates cultures of cells that are highly positive for cardiac troponin I and T (TNNI3, TNNT2), iroquois-class homeodomain protein IRX-4 (IRX4), myosin regulatory light chain 2, ventricular/cardiac muscle isoform (MLC2v) and myosin regulatory light chain 2, atrial isoform (MLC2a) by day 10 across all human embryonic stem cell (hESC) and hiPSC lines tested to date. Cells can be passaged and maintained for more than 90 days in culture. The strategy is technically simple to implement and cost-effective. Characterization of cardiomyocytes derived from pluripotent cells often includes the analysis of reference markers, both at the mRNA and protein level. For protein analysis, flow cytometry is a powerful analytical tool for assessing quality of cells in culture and determining subpopulation homogeneity. However, technical variation in sample preparation can significantly affect quality of flow cytometry data. Thus, standardization of staining protocols should facilitate comparisons among various differentiation strategies. Accordingly, optimized staining protocols for the analysis of IRX4, MLC2v, MLC2a, TNNI3, and TNNT2 by flow cytometry are described.

A Restriction Enzyme Based Cloning Method to Assess the In vitro Replication Capacity of HIV-1 Subtype C Gag-MJ4 Chimeric Viruses

Authors: Daniel T. Claiborne, Jessica L. Prince, Eric Hunter.

Institutions: Emory University, Emory University.

The protective effect of many HLA class I alleles on HIV-1 pathogenesis and disease progression is, in part, attributed to their ability to target conserved portions of the HIV-1 genome that escape with difficulty. Sequence changes attributed to cellular immune pressure arise across the genome during infection, and if found within conserved regions of the genome such as Gag, can affect the ability of the virus to replicate in vitro. Transmission of HLA-linked polymorphisms in Gag to HLA-mismatched recipients has been associated with reduced set point viral loads. We hypothesized this may be due to a reduced replication capacity of the virus. Here we present a novel method for assessing the in vitro replication of HIV-1 as influenced by the gag gene isolated from acute time points from subtype C infected Zambians. This method uses restriction enzyme based cloning to insert the gag gene into a common subtype C HIV-1 proviral backbone, MJ4. This makes it more appropriate to the study of subtype C sequences than previous recombination based methods that have assessed the in vitro replication of chronically derived gag-pro sequences. Nevertheless, the protocol could be readily modified for studies of viruses from other subtypes. Moreover, this protocol details a robust and reproducible method for assessing the replication capacity of the Gag-MJ4 chimeric viruses on a CEM-based T cell line. This method was utilized for the study of Gag-MJ4 chimeric viruses derived from 149 subtype C acutely infected Zambians, and has allowed for the identification of residues in Gag that affect replication. More importantly, the implementation of this technique has facilitated a deeper understanding of how viral replication defines parameters of early HIV-1 pathogenesis such as set point viral load and longitudinal CD4+ T cell decline.

Zebrafish have become a widely used model organism to investigate the mechanisms that underlie developmental biology and to study human disease pathology due to their considerable degree of genetic conservation with humans. Chemical genetics entails testing the effect that small molecules have on a biological process and is becoming a popular translational research method to identify therapeutic compounds. Zebrafish are specifically appealing to use for chemical genetics because of their ability to produce large clutches of transparent embryos, which are externally fertilized. Furthermore, zebrafish embryos can be easily drug treated by the simple addition of a compound to the embryo media. Using whole-mount in situ hybridization (WISH), mRNA expression can be clearly visualized within zebrafish embryos. Together, using chemical genetics and WISH, the zebrafish becomes a potent whole organism context in which to determine the cellular and physiological effects of small molecules. Innovative advances have been made in technologies that utilize machine-based screening procedures, however for many labs such options are not accessible or remain cost-prohibitive. The protocol described here explains how to execute a manual high-throughput chemical genetic screen that requires basic resources and can be accomplished by a single individual or small team in an efficient period of time. Thus, this protocol provides a feasible strategy that can be implemented by research groups to perform chemical genetics in zebrafish, which can be useful for gaining fundamental insights into developmental processes, disease mechanisms, and to identify novel compounds and signaling pathways that have medically relevant applications.

De novo mutations arise mostly in the male germline and may contribute to adverse health outcomes in subsequent generations. Traditional methods for assessing the induction of germ cell mutations require the use of large numbers of animals, making them impractical. As such, germ cell mutagenicity is rarely assessed during chemical testing and risk assessment. Herein, we describe an in vivo male germ cell mutation assay using a transgenic rodent model that is based on a recently approved Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) test guideline. This method uses an in vitro positive selection assay to measure in vivo mutations induced in a transgenic λgt10 vector bearing a reporter gene directly in the germ cells of exposed males. We further describe how the detection of mutations in the transgene recovered from germ cells can be used to characterize the stage-specific sensitivity of the various spermatogenic cell types to mutagen exposure by controlling three experimental parameters: the duration of exposure (administration time), the time between exposure and sample collection (sampling time), and the cell population collected for analysis. Because a large number of germ cells can be assayed from a single male, this method has superior sensitivity compared with traditional methods, requires fewer animals and therefore much less time and resources.

Fate maps are generated by marking and tracking cells in vivo to determine how progenitors contribute to specific structures and cell types in developing and adult tissue. An advance in this concept is Genetic Inducible Fate Mapping (GIFM), linking gene expression, cell fate, and cell behaviors in vivo, to create fate maps based on genetic lineage.
GIFM exploits X-CreER lines where X is a gene or set of gene regulatory elements that confers spatial expression of a modified bacteriophage protein, Cre recombinase (CreERT). CreERT contains a modified estrogen receptor ligand binding domain which renders CreERT sequestered in the cytoplasm in the absence of the drug tamoxifen. The binding of tamoxifen releases CreERT, which translocates to the nucleus and mediates recombination between DNA sequences flanked by loxP sites. In GIFM, recombination typically occurs between a loxP flanked Stop cassette preceding a reporter gene such as GFP.
Mice are bred to contain either a region- or cell type-specific CreER and a conditional reporter allele. Untreated mice will not have marking because the Stop cassette in the reporter prevents further transcription of the reporter gene. We administer tamoxifen by oral gavage to timed-pregnant females, which provides temporal control of CreERT release and subsequent translocation to the nucleus removing the Stop cassette from the reporter. Following recombination, the reporter allele is constitutively and heritably expressed. This series of events marks cells such that their genetic history is indelibly recorded. The recombined reporter thus serves as a high fidelity genetic lineage tracer that, once on, is uncoupled from the gene expression initially used to drive CreERT.
We apply GIFM in mouse to study normal development and ascertain the contribution of genetic lineages to adult cell types and tissues. We also use GIFM to follow cells on mutant genetic backgrounds to better understand complex phenotypes that mimic salient features of human genetic disorders.
This video article guides researchers through experimental methods to successfully apply GIFM. We demonstrate the method using our well characterized Wnt1-CreERT;mGFP mice by administering tamoxifen at embryonic day (E)8.5 via oral gavage followed by dissection at E12.5 and analysis by epifluorescence stereomicroscopy. We also demonstrate how to micro-dissect fate mapped domains for explant preparation or FACS analysis and dissect adult fate-mapped brains for whole mount fluorescent imaging. Collectively, these procedures allow researchers to address critical questions in developmental biology and disease models.

A Strategy to Identify de Novo Mutations in Common Disorders such as Autism and Schizophrenia

Authors: Gauthier Julie, Fadi F. Hamdan, Guy A. Rouleau.

Institutions: Universite de Montreal, Universite de Montreal, Universite de Montreal.

There are several lines of evidence supporting the role of de novo mutations as a mechanism for common disorders, such as autism and schizophrenia. First, the de novo mutation rate in humans is relatively high, so new mutations are generated at a high frequency in the population. However, de novo mutations have not been reported in most common diseases. Mutations in genes leading to severe diseases where there is a strong negative selection against the phenotype, such as lethality in embryonic stages or reduced reproductive fitness, will not be transmitted to multiple family members, and therefore will not be detected by linkage gene mapping or association studies. The observation of very high concordance in monozygotic twins and very low concordance in dizygotic twins also strongly supports the hypothesis that a significant fraction of cases may result from new mutations. Such is the case for diseases such as autism and schizophrenia. Second, despite reduced reproductive fitness1 and extremely variable environmental factors, the incidence of some diseases is maintained worldwide at a relatively high and constant rate. This is the case for autism and schizophrenia, with an incidence of approximately 1% worldwide. Mutational load can be thought of as a balance between selection for or against a deleterious mutation and its production by de novo mutation. Lower rates of reproduction constitute a negative selection factor that should reduce the number of mutant alleles in the population, ultimately leading to decreased disease prevalence. These selective pressures tend to be of different intensity in different environments. Nonetheless, these severe mental disorders have been maintained at a constant relatively high prevalence in the worldwide population across a wide range of cultures and countries despite a strong negative selection against them2. This is not what one would predict in diseases with reduced reproductive fitness, unless there was a high new mutation rate. Finally, the effects of paternal age: there is a significantly increased risk of the disease with increasing paternal age, which could result from the age related increase in paternal de novo mutations. This is the case for autism and schizophrenia3. The male-to-female ratio of mutation rate is estimated at about 4–6:1, presumably due to a higher number of germ-cell divisions with age in males. Therefore, one would predict that de novo mutations would more frequently come from males, particularly older males4. A high rate of new mutations may in part explain why genetic studies have so far failed to identify many genes predisposing to complexes diseases genes, such as autism and schizophrenia, and why diseases have been identified for a mere 3% of genes in the human genome. Identification for de novo mutations as a cause of a disease requires a targeted molecular approach, which includes studying parents and affected subjects. The process for determining if the genetic basis of a disease may result in part from de novo mutations and the molecular approach to establish this link will be illustrated, using autism and schizophrenia as examples.

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